Aftermath by Joel Meyerowitz

A visual record of a profound, tragic momentHistory and art balance in WTC photo archive

FRITZ LANHAM, Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle

Published 5:30 am, Sunday, September 3, 2006

Less than a week after the attacks on the World Trade Center, photographer Joel Meyerowitz stood behind the perimeter fence at Ground Zero, shooting pictures of the massive debris pile. A cop clapped him on the shoulder and announced, "No photographs, buddy, this is a crime scene."

Bronx-born Meyerowitz got his dander up. Author of more than a dozen photography books, a man whose work has been exhibited worldwide, he knew we owed it to ourselves and to history to produce a visual record of this profound moment. Within days he'd finagled semipermission from city authorities to go onto the site. Hauling around a large-format wooden view camera, for nine months he documented the recovery in photographs of crystalline clarity. The result is Aftermath: World Trade Center Archive, which brings together 400 color photos, plus Meyerowitz's commentary, in a handsome large-format book. The World Trade Center Archive is now part of the permanent collection at the Museum of the City of New York.

Arranged chronologically, the photographs record the herculean efforts required to transform a huge pile to a vast empty pit. Meyerowitz also captures the eerie beauty of the debris field, especially in the early months when mountains of twisted metal dwarfed all human presence. Portraits of firefighters, police officers and construction workers serve as counterpoint to the large-scale, deep-focus landscapes.

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"When I made the photographs, I was working as both an artist and a historian," Meyerowitz says.

"I had to make aesthetic decisions, but in the end the goal was not to make 'pretty' pictures of the destruction but to record — with meticulous, archival precision — what happened to all of lower Manhattan in the aftermath of 9/11, so future generations might better grasp the intensity of the effort."

We've all seen Ground Zero photographs, but this book represents the fullest and most impressive visual record I know.